TRAFFIC: Systems affect whole town

Published:08:51Thursday 17 August 2017

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I was surprised to hear that the United Reformed Church hasn’t organised a replacement yet for the Rev Ron Forster when he retires soon, as Ron could have helped introduce his replacement to the wide range of people he will need to know.

Clearly Ron will be a hard act to follow. With his mixture of dedication, humour and sensitivity, he has made a lot of friends in the town and beyond.

Given his years of commitment to protecting and enhancing St George’s Church, the last thing he would want, I would have thought, is too long a delay in finding his replacement, particularly with the threat of development in the local area and the increasing congestion problems, which all impact on the church and its regular visitors.

Given the significant money Northumberland County Council has in its investments in Cramlington’s main shopping area, I wonder when the council will be issuing its proposals for Cramlington’s retail area.

The plans will have to be more detailed and complex than, for example, the plans for a certain former Tesco site in Bedlington, which has taken some time to progress.

I’m sure that both Cramlington residents and regular Cramlington shoppers will be interested in seeing a retail vision for the town in the future to see if it addresses their needs and concerns.

Digging up parts of Morpeth affects the number of shoppers coming to the town, so it affects the bottom line for the local businesses.

Infrastructure improvement and enhancement work is unavoidable as we need to keep up a high quality infrastructure for essential needs like gas.

But if you’re in business in Morpeth and your overhead costs have gone up, such as rent and rates, you will be coming up with some ideas to boost trade when the obstacle course in the town is removed and the work completed.

The traffic problems in Morpeth during the first Monday of the one-way system in the town were as bad as I’ve known in years.

Hopefully, lessons were learned and an officer or two at County Hall has prepared a report on the issue as the growing enthusiasm by developers for new traffic lights and roundabouts in the town can’t just be thought about in the specific part of the town they will be introduced.

Problems at one particular junction affect other parts of the town.

People living in Morpeth have been aware of this for decades, yet the challenges to traffic flow continue to increase.